Architecting My Wardrobe, My Blog, My Sanity

Here's the thing, I began 2015 with a promise to myself: I will commit to doing less. It's not that I don't love having hobbies (oh darling, I do), but between the new job, commuting three hours a day, starting Crossfit, a slew of extracurriculars, and some minor health issues... well, 2014 wore me the heck out.

I didn't realize how bad it was until I visited my mother after several months apart. She gave me that mom stare and said, "Honey, you look exhausted."

I wanted to reply, No Mom, I just turned 32 when you weren't looking. I have wrinkles now, and a tendency to get crippling hangovers after one strong cocktail. But I knew what she meant. The telltale sign of emotional exhaustion isn't dark circles or bloodshot eyes; it's the inability to fully experience life's moments of joy. And that's something a mother can spot a mile away.

Anyway, that's my roundabout way of saying that I'll be taking a hybrid approach to this year's Wardrobe Architect challenge. I do plan to sew, but I don't think I can commit to creating an entire capsule wardrobe from scratch. Which is fine; as Kristen pointed out in her post today, people around the world are taking part in this for a variety of reasons: refining their wardrobes, quitting fast fashion, becoming more mindful consumers, and so on. These are the same reasons I started this blog in the first place, so I think we're all on the same page.

What I can commit to – and what I'm quite excited about – is sharing the progress that I made during last year's Wardrobe Architect series, with a few updates and lessons learned. My goal has always been to create a thoughtful wardrobe from a mix of ready-to-wear clothing and a few handmade pieces, and this year's challenge offers a perfect opportunity to synthesize what I've learned as a beginning seamstress and an ethical consumer-in-progress.

I've also been been doing a lot of behind the scenes work to make this blog more useful for other ethically-minded shoppers. Soon, I'll be rolling out a brand spankin' new format, complete with an interactive, categorized ethical shopping guide. My hope is that these resources will help those of you who also plan to take a hybrid approach to the WA series plan, purchase, and maintain a sustainable wardrobe. Here's a sneak peak of what's to come:

An ethical shopping guide, searchable by attribute, and each with its own page detailing the company's philosophy...

This is still going to take forever to finish building out.

But then... I swear... fewer projects :)